Medical Properties Trust Makes $1.4 Billion Real Estate Play

By Mary Kate Nelson | May 23, 2017

Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE: MPW) just made a real estate play to the tune of $1.4 billion.

The Birmingham, Alabama based self-advised real estate investment trust (REIT) recently signed definitive agreements to purchase the real estate interests of one behavioral health facility and 10 acute care hospitals currently operated by Tennessee-based for-profit hospital operator IASIS Healthcare. After the transaction is completed, all of the buildings will be operated by Steward Health Care System LLC, a private, for-profit hospital operator based in Boston.

The transaction is scheduled to close by Sept. 30, 2017, subject to customary consents and approvals.

IASIS and Steward have separately announced a simultaneous merger transaction. After the Medical Properties Trust deal closes, Steward will become the biggest private, for-profit hospital operator in the country.

The $1.4 billion transaction also boosts Medical Properties Trusts’ pro forma total gross assets by about 20% to nearly $9 billion. Additionally, it adds more than 2,400 beds and 11 hospitals to Medical Properties Trust’s portfolio, bringing the total number to 31,266 and 269, respectively.

“MPT has grown its assets by approximately 31 percent annually since 2013, compared to 15 percent for our healthcare REIT peers, and with this transaction, we eclipse our previous record 2016 acquisition total,” Medical Properties Trust Chairman, President and CEO Edward K. Aldag said in a press release.